German chemicals group BASF and the Swedish company Stena Recycling have signed a deal under which BASF will purchase black mass from the recycling of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. "Stena Recycling will collect, assess, and pre-treat end-of-life batteries and production scrap to produce black mass in its battery recycling facility in Halmstad, Sweden. BASF will further process and refine the black mass in its battery recycling prototype metal refinery in Schwarzheide, Germany", the companies jointly announced on Tuesday.
The cooperation partners aim to transfer this model into BASF’s planned commercial-scale battery recycling metal refinery in Europe. The members of the newly established partnership did not disclose how much recycled material was to be delivered to BASF.
"This agreement is part of a broader collaboration envisaged by BASF and Stena Recycling with the goal of setting up a battery recycling value chain for the European electric vehicle battery market," the companies wrote in the announcement. The focus of the cooperation is to be on developing improved black mass production processes to achieve high recovery rates for metals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt to support closed loop solutions for the European electric vehicle battery market. The cooperation would enable the partners to "leverage their complementary footprints and capabilities to enhance both parties’ individual offerings to their respective European OEM customers."...
